On average, public defender offices handle 50-70% of the cases that flow through a county court system. But funded from county coffers, the offices get the short end of the stick on resources.

Public defender offices have small budgets, small staff—and lots of cases. Lots of cases with people accused of crimes; who are not always the easiest clientele to serve. But they deserve service. Every American has a 6th amendment right to an attorney in trial.

Public defenders say when their offices are understaffed and overworked, that right is in jeopardy.

The Report

A report published by Penn Carey Law last summer shows that with the number of cases getting processed through public defender offices in Pennsylvania, there should be around 1,200 attorneys.

The state has 850 public defenders.

Out of 66 counties studied, 60 were understaffed. All of the counties in our viewing area were understaffed, with Erie and Crawford counties having the worst ratios.

"I know public defender's from Erie, they're really hard working,” Sara Jacobson said, executive director of the Public Defender’s Association of Pennsylvania. "They care about their clients— and they have more cases than they should be handling."

In 2024, Erie's public defender's office processed 3700 adult cases. The Penn Carey Law report says the county should have 27 full time attorneys to handle that kind of case load.

The county has nine.

There are nine full time attorneys, along with eight part time attorneys in Erie’s public defender office.

"When your lawyer doesn't have enough time to talk with you to work on your case, to analyze it, to file motions, there's less justice in our courtrooms,” Jacobson said.

Those nine full time attorneys each managed over 450 cases last year.

"There's only so many nights and weekends and holidays you can give up,” Jacobson said, "without it really taking a toll on emotional health."

Many advocates say higher salaries and more staff positions are the key to reversing course.

"Erie county used to have among the best public defender salaries in the state, before COVID,” Jacobson said. “And they just don't anymore."

Erie County's public defense office has an annual budget of $2.66 million, which is 60% less than the district attorney office budget of $4.45 million.

Resources Beyond Funding

The funding difference is wider than the average case difference processed by both offices; and while public defenders have less cases, they also have less investigative resources than prosecutors offices.

“They [prosecutors] basically call up anyone in a police department or Pennsylvania State Police and say, Hey, find this out,” Gary Kern said, first assistant public defender for Crawford county.

Public defender’s do not have that easy access to law enforcement. Kern also described how defenders often won’t get pulled into cases until months after the incident; which can make it difficult to track down evidence. 

“While cops are really great at preserving evidence that makes a defendant look guilty, they aren’t necessarily looking for clues that could help someone prove their innocence,” Kern said.

Unlike in tv shows, most surveillance footage gets deleted within a few weeks to save space on servers. Kern says witnesses respond differently to when a police officer asks them to answer questions versus someone in plain clothes.

Lastly, Kern notes that those accused of crimes and who qualify for a public defender are often navigating more than legal issues in life.

“Many of them have substance abuse issues, many of them have mental health issues,” Kern said. “Some of them don’t keep a phone number for more than two weeks, so something that should take a staffer a few minutes of work can take a lot longer."

A defendant may be forced to stay in jail because they don’t have an address to be released to (which is unfair to the client and expensive for the county); Public defender offices work with social services in the community to bridge those gaps for their clients.

State Funds Lacking

Crawford county also faces severe staffing shortage issues.

“We used to have four full time staff.. we now have three full time staff. And the case loads are not getting any less,” Kern said.

There have been concentrated advocacy efforts, and even a recent lawsuit from the ACLU of Pennsylvania, working to get more funding for public defense offices from the state.

For two years now, the state has allocated $7.5 million to be divvied up between 67 counties— which amounts to roughly $95,000-$110,000 per county.

Crawford county spent their funds on hiring a social worker liaison for their office, along with purchasing new case management software. Erie county used the funds to hire more support staff.

In comparison, the district attorney has statutory salary standards, which the state helps counties comply with. In 2024, district attorney offices won $39 million in state grants.